Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara called Robin Westman, 23, the suspect involved in a mass shooting at a Catholic school on Wednesday that resulted in the deaths of two children, a "coward" who conducted an "absolutely incomprehensible" act of violence.
Westman killed an 8-year-old and 10-year-old when he fired through the windows at Annunciation Church, which was holding the first Mass of the school year. O'Hare said 17 others, including 14 children, were wounded, but all were expected to survive. Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The rifle, shotgun, and pistol Westman allegedly used were lawfully purchased, O'Hara said. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that police are executing four search warrants: One for the church, the other three for nearby residences related to the suspected shooter, and "additional firearms recovered from there as we speak."
O’Hara also said police are aware of a manifesto that Westman had timed to be released on YouTube.
"The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible," O'Hara told reporters. "The coward who fired the shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church.
"Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost their children, for these young lives that are now fighting to recover, and for our entire community that has been so deeply traumatized by this senseless attack."
A video posted Wednesday on a YouTube channel that appeared to have belonged to Westman displayed four guns, ammunition, a letter to family and friends and clothing the narrator apparently planned to wear "tomorrow," the Star Tribune reported.
The firearms shown were a rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns. At times menacing and laughing maniacally, and at other times quietly apologizing to family, the narrator spoke about plans to injure children without remorse, invoking the names of a multinational investment company, an oil company and a beer company, as well as a Second Amendment activist running for Congress in Texas.
Words, phrases, and drawings had been scrawled in marker all over the weapons and magazines, some of the messages antisemitic, one reading "kill Donald Trump." The narrator displayed a four-page letter to friends and family directed to the narrator's parents: "I'm sorry I didn't turn out as you had hoped."
There are references to a pedophile and a rapist, and hostility about Christianity, including the image of Jesus on a shooting target and phrases scrawled on the guns such as "Where's your God now?"
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.